These old movies with the actors using their normal accents, so English is just ridiculous. For Gods sake can they not ACT and try to sound Roman, speaking as they would have. Same goes for the Egyptians. Anyone seen the Spartacus series on Starz. Speak as they did. The proper English gentlemen sound is utterly stupid. All the politeness ridiculous.
shareIf they aren't going to be speaking Greek or Latin, why not speak English in their English accent?
shareExcept for ET the actors were British/English. Plus it is a standard Hollywood trope to have Romans speak in the Queen's English.
share"Except for ET the actors were British/English."
Taylor was born in Hampstead, London, and lived in England until she was seven years old. Her parents were American, but she was a British citizen.
It was 1963 and many of the greatest actors of the time were British and had Shakespearean backgrounds. There were plenty of movies from that time where Nazis have British accents that always amused me.
shareWhat do you want them to use: speak Latin and Classical Greek? That would be so approachable.
The "Spartacus" to which you refer - is that the one with John Hannah using his Scottish accent? Lazy actor doesn't even try to use ancient Gaelic. Don't a lot of the extras have a New Zealand accent? I maybe wrong as I haven't watched it since Andy Whitfield was in it.
I have always thought it odd to use Nglish actors for Roman movies.
shareThe Spartacus on Starz sounded british so what is your point?
shareWhat's really weird is the American actors like Carroll O'Connor attempting English accents to fit in with the English actors.
shareYou know what's worse than romans speaking with English accents? Macedonians speaking with Irish accents (yes, I'm talking to you, Colin Farrell)
What makes you think that the peasants of England listen to you instead of me?
Because unlike SOME Robin Hood's, I can speak with an English accent.
English accents are appropriate. The Roman aristocracy was atop an extensive empire. In modern reckoning the thing that comes closest was the British empire of the 19th century (and those folks consciously modeled themselves after the Romans).
shareThey should either speak ancient Latin, Greek, or Egyptian, with English subtitles, or speak English with Latin, Greek, or Egyptian accents. Yeah, makes sense, right?
shareAssuming you are being serious are you talking about modern Greek and Egyptian accents? (No one speaks Latin as an everyday language anymore.)
I am always amused by these topics. Can any of you tell me how a Roman, Greek or Egyptian accent sounded in 30 BC? (or BCE if you prefer?) I highly doubt it. Modern linguists can make educated guesses regarding how individual phonemes were pronounced at that time (I took Latin in High School and that guess is what we were taught) but it is only a guess and doesn't address at all the sound or tone of speech.
And while I prefer subtitles to dubbing, I would rather not have either. Having to read subtitles distracts from the film. I would rather, as most director's do, assign accents to illustrate the social position of the characters.